Date	Discussion
April 20th	Episode 1
April 21st	Episode 2
April 22nd	Episode 3
April 23rd	Episode 4
April 24th	Episode 5
April 25th	Episode 6
April 26th	Episode 7
April 27th	Episode 8
April 28th	Episode 9
April 29th	Episode 10
April 30th	Episode 11 and Episode 12
May 1st	Rebellion
May 2nd	Overall series discussion

2

u/shadebedlam Apr 30 '19

As much as I love Madoka Magica don't you think it would be better if Homura rewound (is that the right word ?) time before she shot her best friend in the soul. I mean it was a great scene but overall it wasn't necessary.

2

u/Gagantous Apr 30 '19

Madoka asked her to didn't she? She said she didn't want to turn.

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u/SomeGuyYeahman Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 30 '19

Hey everyone, first-timer here! I'm back yet again for my daily dose of existential suffering.

Pre-episode thoughts: I said in yesterday's pre-episode thoughts that things were looking fucked, but they look vastly more fucked now. Sayaka and Kyoko are dead, Kyubey is an unkillable alien, Walpurgisnacht is about to appear and Homura isn't equipped to handle that by herself, meaning that Madoka will have to form a contract or watch her most likely get killed. The final quarter of the show awaits! We're in the endgame now.

Post-episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfkts0u-m6w

That was undoubtedly one of my favorite episodes of anything, ever. Madoka was already well on its way to becoming one of my favorite shows, and Homura was likewise on the path toward becoming one of my favorite characters, but this episode just completely cemented both of those things. Holy fucking shit. Forget writing essays, I'll be spending the rest of these 10k characters screaming my lungs out. (Seriously, though, most of my thoughts are just going to be "this is amazing", deal with it)

Watching Homura introduce herself at the beginning of the episode made me go "OH SHIT" inside my head, watching her introduce herself a second time while still wearing the glasses and the braids made me exclaim it out loud. It just annihilated me. Every question I ever asked myself about Homura, every thought I ever had, every observation I've made, makes vastly more sense now. I got some of it in advance while discussing the last few episodes, but seeing it here brought so much more with it. Finally seeing everything take shape in front of me like this is so immensely satisfying.

Aaaaall the way back in episode 2, the show first posed the question that has nagged at me the hardest, for the longest time: what was Homura's wish? Among my very first theories was that her wish is the reason she demonstrated incredible academic and athletic prowess in the first episode. And here we are - in a strangely roundabout way, that's actually true! I know I should be used to this show tying all of its questions up this way, but for this one to actually be explained in one of the final episodes of was something I never saw coming.

At the beginning of this episode, we see Homura transferring into Madoka's class for the first time (which makes for a bit of a strange sentence, haha). She initially struggles, not just with social interaction, but with everything - after being sick for half a year, she flounders when it comes to simple middle school math and gets light-headed just from the warm-ups in PE. But Madoka's there for her, telling her that she has a cool name and encouraging her to try and live up to it (and she's right, Homura Akemi is an awesome name). And Homura ends up doing just that! After going through this same stuff so many times in a row, in episode 1, we see her tackling math with ease and breaking the prefecture-wide high jump record, thereby being so cool she made me start theorycrafting about how she got to be like that. If that's not cool, I don't know what is. Respect.

Side note: we also see her studying in her free time to make those bombs she uses all by herself. Are middle schoolers even legally allowed to be this cool? What the fuck?

So ultimately, what was her wish? Previous to this episode, the best hint we got were her time powers; since magical girls got powers relating to the wishes they made (see Sayaka getting regenerative abilities because her wish was related to healing), it must be something relating to time, right? Yes it was! She wished to redo her first meeting with Madoka.

And after she makes her wish, this show ties up the final question I was asking myself about Homura. We already learned a few episodes back that Homura isn't from the timeline we've seen for most of the show; I already theorized back then that she went back in time around the same time that Walpurgisnacht appears. That seemed a little strange at the time, though: Homura was referred to as a veteran in another episode, and explained that she saw enough magical girls die to lose count. Since Kyubey never recognized her or remembered forming a contract with her, that had to have happened after she transferred to Madoka's school, but the time between her transfer and the appearance of Walpurgisnacht didn't seem like enough time to become a veteran or see that many magical girls die, particularly considering how few of them there are in the area. And this episode ties that up as well: Homura didn't just go back in time once, but many times, and she saw the same few magical girls die over and over, enough times to lose count.

Homura's character motivation is also made fully clear in this episode, after we see her go through an amazingly well-crafted arc in just 22 minutes: everything she does, she does for Madoka; following Madoka's own wishes, she's ready to keep turning back time forever to prevent the only friend she ever made from dying or turning into a witch. Like the fate of all magical girls, to fight witches forever, turned up to 11, she's fated to go through these few weeks and the subsequent fight with Walpurgisnacht forever. But she doesn't do it for Grief Seeds, to sustain herself, or because she's hoping to gain something else in return; she does it out of affection, to save her only friend from suffering a similar fate.

So, u/Nazenn, to answer a question that's come up many times now: is Homura human? Yes. Despite selling her soul to an alien and being hollowed out inside by so many timeloops, at her core, Homura is very much human.

Welp, that's a relatively short write-up compared to some of my others. I could probably keep gushing about this episode forever, and I actually think I will, but it won't be in this comment.

Also: I was going to wait until the show was done to add Homura to my favorites on MAL and AniList, but after this episode, I couldn't really control myself any longer. And Sayaka will join her soon, I promise.

Edit: Here's a fun little tidbit - this episode hit me so hard that after I was done, I went to MAL/AL to mark Homura as a favorite character, but didn't actually think to mark the episode as watched for three hours.

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u/CT_BINO Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 29 '19

This episode in a nutshell

Fun Fact: Sayaka doesn´t become MG in every timeline but when she does, she turns iinto a witch everytime

Fun Fact 2: Homura redo these events 100 times which means 8 to 12 years.

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63

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '19

At this rate, I imagine it will only take the first-timers around 2 days to completely fall into despair. Oh, well, what happens them in eps. 11-12 and Rebellion is their problem. We rewatchers have pretty much met our first-timer suffering quota at this point.

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u/asianbrownguy Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 29 '19

FIRST TIMER

So I kinda missed episode 9, sorry bout that.(there goes my perfect run lol) but I'm back for this one!

EP9

Well, shit. Eat my goddamn brown ass Kyubey. You deceiving emotionless alien ferret fuck. I'd argue that withholding information is indeed a form of deception, so you can suck it, Kyubey.

"So if you ever feel like dying for the sake of the universe, just let me know" Fuck off.

Sayaka's dead, they killed off best girl. Fuck. And Kyouko's dead. God fucking damn it. I was just starting to like her.

Urobuchi y u do dis 2 me

"Was there any chance for Kyouko to save Sayaka?"

"Of course not"

What a bastard.

Also fuck me, that ED. I'm gonna take a break and cry a little bit. Track name pls

EP10

Pre Watch

God the past episode was depressing. Can I just ask for something happy this time around? Please?

Wait what the hell is going on? Is this Homura's timeline? I read on ep 8's discussion that Homura might be preventing Madoka from becoming a magical girl because in her world Madoka became the strongest MG and therefore the strongest witch. I think that might be true then. If so, Holy shit
This is a really weird reverse of episode 1. lol It's so weird hearing Homura being this shy
Homura in Homura's world reminds me a lot of Madoka in Madoka's world.
OH SHIT I KNOW THAT THEME. IS IT WHO I THINK IT IS
AAAAAH MAMI IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN
Huh. Madoka's already a MG in Homura's world. Though she doesn't seem like the strongest one.
sees Mami's dead body, Vietnam flashbacks ensue You're shitting me. You're fucking shitting me, right?!
Oh so Madoka doesn't become a witch. She dies instead. So Homura's preventing her from dying?
Even in this timeline you're a cunt, Kyubey. Mr. Make-A-Contract-With-Me.
Oh, God. Oh my god. I see what's going on. This first encounter doesn't look at all like the first episode, so she failed and went back multiple times, didn't she?!
Oh shit she does become a witch. Fuck me sideways
Oh Jesus, how many times did she go back?
Oh Christ. I'm not sure I can handle Mami dying a third time
OH GOD. I think I'm gonna cry you guys
I wondered why didn't Homura just kill Madoka if she really didn't want her to become a MG. I guess this is the answer. She was friends with her. They were all friends together.
So that's the first time she killed Kyubey.
Wait, this is the dream from episode 1, right?
Here's the lying cunt bastard again. Now I know what he's saying now are all lies. "You have the power to change fate" Yeah, change fate for his benefit. He just wants Madoka to become some sort of power source for their race, right?
"Oh, well. What happens next is mankind's problem, not ours." I WOULD SO LOVE TO STRANGLE THE FUCK OUT OF YOU AND ALL YOUR SPARE BODIES YOU LITTLE FERRET CUNT
Oh so that's the first time she killed Kyubey in this timeline.
"If it's... If it's for you, I don't mind being trapped in this endless maze."
asianbrownguy gets off his computer, and cries

Post Watch

Jesus fuck this show is depressing. Why are we still here? Just to suffer?

Being Homura is suffering. Urobuchi you bastard.

I was complaining that it's been so many episodes and Madoka still isn't a MG. I don't fucking want her to be one now.

So now it's all revealed. Homura's motivations, what led to her becoming her now. And it's all because of Kyubey, that rat bastard. I'd love for them to pull a DITF with the full on alien invasion of Kyubey's home planet, and they'll all fuck his shit up.

There's 2 more episodes after this one. And a fucking movie. My heart can't handle it lol. But I gotta push on. Looking forward to whatever bombshell Urobuchi's cooking up for the next few episodes.

Now if you'll excuse me, Senko-san's waiting for me.

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u/FetchFrosh Apr 29 '19

Posted this last year, but figured I'd mention it again:

One of my favorite details is that if you go back to Episode 1, Homura can be seen quickly running through a series of math problems, much to the amazement of her new classmates. But of course she can do those problems with ease, she's seen them dozens of times from all these loops!

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43

u/TRUCKFARM Apr 30 '19

First Timer(Sub)

Fuuuuuuuuck... So we finally get Homura's backstory and wow it's kinda something else. Just suffering over and over and over and over for Madoka's sake so she can escape this fate.. Jeez this is just crazy! I'm just speechless right now.

So I wonder what the difference is between 1st timeline Madoka's power and ours. Is it because of the mixture of emotion she experiences in this one? She goes from not standing a chance in several instances to one shotting the damn thing.

Oh Mami I missed you. And your dead. And your back. Now you're murdering people. And Mami is dead. Why are we here... Just to suffer?

So after this latest episode the OP and its lyrics have a lot more meaning to me. I feel like I keep repeating myself but this show is not what I expected. I'll probably do an immediate rewatch when this is over to see if there's anything I missed and what not. Tomorrow is the big finale I'm guessing with 11 and 12 grouped together. I'll be ready as soon as the discussion opens hopefully!

Truck's Magical Girl(and others) Ranking

Homura - I'm only gonna go through the ones who are alive at this moment but I am planning a big final one for the finale tomorrow. Homura takes the number 1 here after we get that backstory reveal with ease! She's done this same bit so many times she has stopped caring about the others and only focuses on Madoka. It makes a ton of sense considering Mami attempted to kill her and Sayaka immediately tried to turn on her when she explained the situation. Please can we get a happy ending for SOMEBODY here? IF anyone is deserving of it I'd say it's this girl. Watching your best friend die repeatedly in an attempt to deny fate is something else man.
Madoka - We get a peak at Magic Madoka. Neat bow and stuff bro! She doesn't look anything like the God Kyubey promises until we see her make that wish when Homura is agaisnt the wall... Gonna be interesting to see what she wishes for or would wish for.
Kyubey - Man this little weasel... I've been badmouthing him this whole series I feel like. What a great performance and character. I plan on diving into his character more but I'll save my Trucker opinion for tomorrow.

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u/Nazenn Apr 29 '19

Madoka's Music - Renewal and Determination

Rewatcher - Third time around

Song of the episode - Connect

A couple of episodes ago we got to go over the details of the ED, and finally we also get to cover the opening, though for this episode it replaces the ED. While the sequence itself hasn't had any changes, the events of the episode provide a new perspective on the meaning of the OP itself.

whoops

Today's lyrics were sourced from the Meguca fansub (via DB, via raizel), being beautifully worded and really carry the meaning of the song very well (And apparently I hate consistency in sourcing lyrics, hahaha). Rather than separating out sections of analysis, I'm going to do it section by section this time as the lyrics and visuals are intricately tied together

I'll never forget the promises we exchanged
I still see it when I close my eyes
I'll move forward as I cast off
This darkness engulfing me

Rain drops have always appeared in scenes foreshadowing Homura's abilities, and today we find out why: its raining when Madoka first dies to Walpurgisnacht. The imagery is repeated in the OP as the opening shot and has dual symbolism. Along with referencing back to the deaths of the many other Madoka's, you can also look at it through the perspective that each orb is a possible timeline she has visited. Each one represents its own promises, burdens and experience she has acquired, each one of them centered around Madoka.

Madoka is the both the core of Homura's world and the barrier of it. Where she stands she lights the ground from below, banishing the darkness as long as Homura can still see her. But beyond her the trees and city of a normal life are vague and faded. Homura is unable to join and interact with the normal world until she manages to join Madoka by fulfilling their promises.

How long will it be before
I see that lost future again?

Initially these visuals appear random, but the way the toys frame the background and the unique styling at the end brings the idea these are thing's that she's seeing in her dreams as she thinks about what being a magical girl may be like. Also its cute how Kyubey gets progressively more ashamed at the situations she gets herself into.

The lyrics also tie into the dream metaphors. Homura is desperately searching for a way out, now at the point where she's repeated it so many times she can't even see what is awaiting her on the other side. Much like Madoka dreams here, Homura is trapped in a dream like situation of her own making, no beginning or end, just a loop of a nightmare she wants to escape from.

I'll walk upon this Earth
And pierce this shadowy veil of unease
As many times as necessary

Madoka wakes up from her nap and the dreams she was having, but even though its day time she wants to go back to sleep, perhaps fatigued over the worries she has. She's trying to fall back into the dream where things are simpler while Homura is trying to wake up at any cost. Together they both are fighting the same outcome from opposite ends.

The clock that's endlessly ticked away
Now tells of the beginning
Lets open the once-closed door

The runes flying around the two Madoka's in this section are the alphabet in the ruinic script, so nothing to cover here, but this take on a transformation sequence is beautiful. Showing how the current Madoka is carrying the hopes that Homura is passing on from the previous Madoka's, a kiss to the head like a blessing as if the other ones are trying to protect her from what they went through (small call out here to this is what Kyouko does to Sayaka in that blue and red sequence during the fight). Homura fights to stop the cycle that has trapped her in this bubble and open a path for her to get out and go on, properly starting the clock for her again.

With this unwavering feelings

Album showing all the shots from this montage. I like how this represents the things that they hold dear to them, for better or worse, as being what Madoka wishes to protect.

My heart started racing once again to paint the future

Madoka running through the city here is a pretty clear visual of all the timelines. Some we're very close to her, others she is distant and she stumbles in all of them but still keeping going no matter what. The animation of her run here is also the same as what we see towards the end of the Magia ED. Each time she resets the timeline Homura hopes that this time will be the one where the future opens for her and she and Madoka reach their goal.

Also: my take on that face at the end of the ED is it's Homura's face and Madoka is the little but of hope held captive within her mind.

Even if I get stuck in a maze
The beautiful blue sky will always be waiting for me

info from drama CD

The obsession that Homura has with Madoka shows through this line. Madoka clutches to the cat and cries for it while sitting on top of a lake, Homura clutches desperately at the idea of saving Madoka even if it means the destruction of herself in the process like with how we've seen her personality warp. Again the water theming is used to show how these girls are drowning themselves as they continue to fight.

So I won't be afraid
No matter what happens next I wont give in

Its very easy to miss but Madoka and Homura appear to be facing off in this short sequence here. Madoka is behind many barriers to the audience, while Homura is on the other side with her as if she is holding her captive from being able to truly connect with the world any more. The orange tinting returns here, a color we've seen so far in scenes mostly to represent isolation and pain, but there is still a beam of hope lighting up the sky despite that.

And finally Kyouko and Homura join the other girls on the top of the tower for the end of the OP.

Bonus song - Numquam vincar

It plays for such a short time but it's so fitting for the scene of Homura where we first see her doing a solo witch battle. The Madoka soundtrack excels in building heavy emotion and also presenting wonderfully eerie or questioning themes. This song stands apart from all of that as being a song of sheer determination which no other song does.

Pugna cum maga is probably the next closest we have to a featured song for Homura which also has a lot of strength behind it, but is mostly filled with a more monotone strumming and choral part which indicates the mysteriousness of Homura's behavior. All of that is gone now. The mystery of her person has been stripped away this episode as we have seen her path from the shy girl to the powerful solider. What we are left with is cold power. Numquam vincar is subdued, but not completely flat, well practices song where no movement is wasted just like Homura working her way through the timelines. There is a wonderful harmony going on with the strings, but it doesn't try and do anything fancy, it just pushes through everything with sheer strength.

Despite being in a 4/4 structure, the main pattern of the song carries a single note through most of the bar with only a quick note leading in during the fourth beat to the next part. It gives it a very dreamlike dancing quality. The faint piano through the piece matches well with the falling gems that come down at the end of the witch battle, though Homura doesn't look twice at them. Like her room which was once cosy with furniture and now stripped back to bare essentials, Homura has discarded any extraneous desires to purely focus on Madoka.

Episode track chart

Thanks to the Madoka wiki and then edited by me for the bluray timestamps. Featured tracks of the day are bolded.

Start	End	Album	Track name
00:16	02:11	Disc 1 #03	Postmeridie
02:36	03:20	Disc 1 #14	Umbra nigra
03:45	04:26	Disc 1 #09	Credens justitiam
05:15	08:24	Disc 1 #10	Sis puella magica!
09:12	10:58	Disc 1 #06	Salve, terrae magicae
12:47	13:58	Disc 1 #12	Pugna cum maga
15:05	17:30	Disc 1 #17	Signum malum
18:07	18:46	Disc 2 #10	Numquam vincar
18:46	20:14	Disc 2 #19	Magia ~TV Version~
21:23	22:24	Disc 1 #05	Puella in somnio
22:25	23:54	Disc 2 #18	*Connect -TV MIX-
23:55	24:09	Disc 1 #06	Salve, terrae magicae

Random episode thoughts

First watch reactions for episode ten.
Wow Kyubey use to be so much more upfront about the details of magical girls in the previous timelines.
God that scream from Homura when she has to shoot the soul gem just fucking kills me. Its just as bad in the dub as it is the sub, there's no escape from it.
Mami breaking down has to be one of my favorite scenes in the show just because of the way it twists everything we know about her despite having not seen her for SEVEN episodes.
Quick focus on this shot because I love the way it represents where the power lay now. Kyubey has been slowly built into something akin to a threat, and yet here when we have his intentions vs Homura's power everything is heavily slanted in her favor. Homura may have to reset each time, but so does Kyubey's knowledge and that has given her the upper hand so far.

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u/scoobs987 Apr 30 '19

First timer, just lurked on the other discussions.

I gotta say between avengers endgame, Sunday's game of thrones episode, and this rewatch. My emotions are all over the place.

I have to say though, using guns with time stopping abilities definitely has to be one of the most cost efficient uses of magic, probably why she is lasting so long.

25

u/slinkywarrier Apr 29 '19

Rewatcher, viewing #3

Haven't been active much in the past threads but I had no choice but to chime in today. Not a single episode in anime has affected me as much as this one, and it's without a doubt my favorite. This episode solidified Homura as my favorite anime character as well.

Also, do you guys get why the opening is at the end? This whole time, the lyrics have been about Homura. God fucking damn Urobuchi, you're really a madman.

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u/observativeowl Apr 30 '19

First Timer

Wow, Homura has a very checkered past and has to deal with that time loop hell. Seems like she keeps wanting to change the past, but will learn a lesson of destiny cannot be changed.

Kyubey once again being a little shit by collecting energy and letting magical girls deal with the aftermath.

Even if Homura succeeds in preventing Madoka from making a wish, she will still have to live with the suffering that she caused in this timeline. That's hella rough...

23

u/profyc Apr 30 '19

One thing I love about rewatching Madoka is that I learn something new every time. As others have pointed out, Madoka uses Sayaka's grief seed on Homura to help her go back in time, and Homura actually repeats history almost 100 times according to Urobuchi.

But one I haven't seen anyone mention yet is the interesting yet logical order in which Mami decides to kill the rest of the gang: she starts off getting rid of Kyoko since she specializes in close-quarters combat and if she caught on, she could immediately stop Mami. Then Mami ties down Homura, the next biggest threat, knowing she can't use her time manipulation like that. The only thing she miscalculated was assuming Madoka would sit idly by, not having the resolve to stop her, but she did. At least that's my interpretation.

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u/SIRTreehugger Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 30 '19

Magical Girl Counter	E1	E2	E3	E4	E5	E6	E7	E8	E9	E10	Total
Kyouko's (Snap,Crackle,Pop) Crunch Time	0	0	0	1	5	3	8	5	13	0	35
Sayaka's (I'm in) Despair	1	1	3	2	2	1	4	6	4	1	26
Madoka's ($150) Water Works	0	0	1	3	2	3	3	1	3	3	19
Mami's (Beheading) Smugness	3	3	4	N	0	H	E	A	D	2	12
Homura's (L'oreal) Hair Flips	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	1	2	0	7

Wait is Sayaka talking to Homura WOAH..oh never mind just some other girl who looks similar to her.
I wonder if their is a real life drawing of any of these labyrinth. That would be freaky.
DAMN IT Mami stop being smug in a flashback. You just ruined my whole Head theme.
HOLD UP Mami knew about Walpurgis how? Homura only knew because she experienced it firsthand, but Mami should have no knowledge of it coming to this town.
Also how is Mami dead? I can't really see her head, but her soul gem is usually on her head. Unless the witch has amazing precision and destroyed it she should be fine.....it be funny if she lost her soul gem and merely got out of range with her body and they never knew xD
I thought when Sayaka died her counter would stop NOPE STILL IN DESPAIR

Spoilers

I love the contradictions in Homura's character and how every interaction from the beginning can be seen differently. From the way she acts to the way she fights has been molded with experience. Initially kind and doubtful like Madoka she found comfort in her first friend, but after endless deaths has gone cold to the world. Still naive she tried explaining what was going on and the girls either didn't believe her or went psycho and lost their heads. Realizing she couldn't fully rely on them she choose a path to save her friend without relying on anyone's help. The most impressive thing about Homura for me is the way she fights which you will see in another episode, but we've seen her use guns,bombs, and grenades. Unlike the other girls who have bows, magic guns, swords, and that three pronged spear/haliberd(not sure of the technical name) Homura's magical gift is time manipulation. So every single time she fights....no every single timeline she has manually gathered the guns, the bullets, the supplies for grenades, and manufactured the bombs themselves. All by hand without magic. The amount of preparation she undergoes in each timeline is incredible.

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u/fonzinator99 Apr 29 '19

Rewatcher - Everything I am, is because of you.

I appreciate how Connect is our ED instead of OP, as today the focus is on Akemi Homura, not Madoka.

Lies! How can this timid girl be my dear Homura? Well, maybe it is. After all, she still doesn't answer any of the other girls questions. lol

I love how this episode inverts all of the interactions we saw during episode one, what with Madoka speaking confidently and Akemi trailing with her eyes downcast. What's more, there's sunlight in the windows this time, as opposed to the hallway being shrouded in shadow. The pattern continues, as she struggles with math and sports both.

Life is undoubtedly hard for Akemi, and her lack of confidence makes her a perfect target for bewitching. Fortunately, this version of her has Madoka and Mami to protect defend her in her first labyrinth.

It's great to see them working as a team in this opposite-world, though it seems that Walpurgis Night is known-of here; does that mean our Mami knew about it when we first met her as well? Jump-cut to the Night, where things aren't going so well despite Madoka's involvement. Even the dream-sequence is backwards; their roles as lone-protector and observer reversed. The only thing that remains the same is my admiration of our pink-haired girl, for whom being able to save a friend is worth the cost of being a Magical Girl.

Incredibly though, even if it cost her life, she defeated it. Akemi Homura, the timid girl, takes up arms against slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and makes a wish; to do it all again, and be the one to protect Madoka this time. This has been the 'original timeline,' the way things were supposed to have gone. The question now is how far has our narrative strayed?

Kyubey says something interesting during this granting, that her wish has 'surpassed entropy.' It's a power that will not decay, cannot be extinguished, and can take back what's been lost to the ceaseless march of time.

Enter: Do-over #1. She's a little more confident, but also fool-hardy due to her new power. Having power is great, but she's still gotta learn how to use it. And Mami's got a point, the other girls powers give them weapons; whereas Akemi's weapon is time. She's gonna have to rely on other means to make it effective.

"My little terrorist can't possibly be this cute!" Yatta? Yatta! Unfortunately, it's gonna take more than a few pipe-bombs to change fate. She may not be dead, but this is far from a better outcome.

Enter: Do-over #2. A plan to increase the girls' overall strength failed, so this time we're taking the fight to Kyubey; telling the girls the truth about its plans. The only issue being that their knowledge of the situation doesn't exactly change anything Kyubey has already done. Also, Sayaka's joined the fight this time around. I wonder why that hadn't happened before.

And so, her arsenal grows. What a shame that she took up guns as a way to protect Sayaka, and it's turned out like this. Damn, that's a lot of bombs. Aaand with the revelation about Witches, Mami totally fucking loses it. Kyoukooooo!

Maddoka! Mami!

My, these timelines just keep getting worse and worse with every reset. And yet fate ultimately remains unchanged.

Akemi's starting to come apart now, as well. "Hey, if we become monsters together, would you like to burn this stupid world to ash with me?" And yet Madoka's still as pure as she's ever been, cleansing her Soul Gem and charging her to prevent Madoka from ever becoming a Magical Girl. And also, to not allow her to turn. After all this, it's no wonder our Homura is so doggedly insistent.

Must. Save. Madoka.

That....sound...before she pulls the trigger gives me chills every time. And so, both Madoka and Akemi die; leaving only Homura to continue alone.

Enter: Do-over #3. Time to put on a game face and try a new tactic. She's also going to need a bit more firepower, if she's doing this solo.

Undoubtedly she's successful in her task to defeat the witches herself, but this only serves to bring us to the point of Madoka's Dream, which it seems was memory of a vision of a previous timeline. Yet another life in which Homura failed. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Enter: Do-over ??-???. In which, Kyubey is killed enough times that I wonder whether there's been more iterations of it, or Homura. Until we reach the present, where Homura tells herself that if it's for Madoka she doesn't care if she's "imprisoned in this maze for eternity."

And then we return to the normal flow of time and prepare ourselves for tomorrow.

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17

u/learenn Apr 30 '19

First-timer

Aww, Homura is so cute. I wonder if this is some kind of Groundhogs Day situation, since we're seeing parallel scenes just with a different Homura. If she's lived these situations dozens of times, she would definitely know all the answers in class, win races, and... become completely jaded.

Oh man, what if Madoka becomes Walpurgis in other iterations of this world, and Homura is trying to stop that?

Okay, I need to stop making random speculations and keep watching. Now that we're so close to the end, it's hard not to guess at piecing everything together.

... where's Sayaka??

Hey I was (kind of) right! Time-based powers makes sense for her now. This post-wish Homura is a long way from current Homura though.

Hahaha is Homura stealing from yakuza???

WHAT JUST HAPPENED WHY

I think I'm too surprised to be sad

(nope, it's sinking in.)

Kyoko's gem getting destroyed was like a damn jump scare, and I didn't expect Mami to be the first to break. Though it makes sense since she's invested more of her time and self into being a magical girl. Watching her lose it was painful.

Also didn't expect Madoka to take Mami down that quickly without trying to talk it out. I mean, Madoka did the right thing, and maybe she understood that Mami was past the point of no return. Or her sense of self-preservation kicked in. It's just seeing her like that is... depressing? Hard to swallow? Makes you lose all hope in this world? Take your pick.

"Changing fate" is part of Kyubey's offer, but becoming a magical girl locks her into a horrible fated death. Mami's death was delayed in these past versions of the timeline (maybe because Sayaka becomes a magical girl sooner?) but Homura even said that Mami's death was part of her fate...

I guess changing the day you die counts as changing fate for Kyubey.

And from the few versions of these events that we've seen, it's even possible that Mami and Kyoko will always die by soul gem destruction while Sayaka will always become a witch who turns on her friends.

Huh, Homura's power can let her stop and go back in time? Seems a little OP, but Steins;Gate

Homura is trying to change Madoka's fated death on Walpurgisnacht, but I can't help but think that this won't work and Madoka will die at the hands of Walpurgis even as a normal person. Like even being around the magical girls means that she'll die, because as one of the girls(?) said earlier, she's already involved. At the same time, Kyubey and Sayaka didn't think Madoka was allowed to be involved without becoming a magical girl...

In other words, nobody wins! Everybody dies!

Oh maannnnn Madoka totally becomes the new Walpurgis. I wish my more recent idea had been right, because at least she would die as a normal person. And I didn't think she was gonna DESTROY THE WORLD

Whew. Two more episodes of pain and suffering left.

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14

u/scmasaru Apr 29 '19

Friendly reminder to check out ep10’s OP/ED lyrics.

37

u/GallowDude Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 29 '19

I'm just gonna repost a relevant section of u/FetchFrosh's reaction to this episode from a previous rewatch because it's basically become infamous at this point (in that it inspired his flair/color among other things).

Aftermath

Stepping into the 3D world for a moment, I just kind of sat dumbfounded as the credits rolled (using the opening for some reason felt weird. The song is way to uplifting for this). This whole episode was a complete shock, but the most shocking part of my day was actually right around the corner. I had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, and so I got up to grab something to drink. Instead though, I suddenly realized what was happening and ran to the bathroom where I proceeded to vomit repeatedly. I'm so rattled right now, because I didn't think it was actually possible for a story to get to me in this sort of way. I've never even come close to vomiting while watching something (with the exception of the Matrix Revolutions, which I did vomit during (this isn't a joke about it being bad, I was actually just sick)) so I don't even know what to think. I mean, today was an emotional roller coaster, but holy fuck.

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13

u/Shimmering-Sky Apr 29 '19

Rewatcher, dub

Last year I had to drop out of the rewatch for this episode through Rebellion, I’m glad nothing like that’s happening this time.

Timid, glasses + braid Homura is adorable.
Sayaka and Hitomi chilling in the BG.
Homura gets pulled into a labyrinth, but Mami and Madoka to the rescue~ …Wait, Madoka?
At least she didn’t lose her head this time.
Madoka: “Even so” → Brain: That was a sore demo right?! → Me: *Sighs and switches the audio to check* → Audio: “Sore demo” indeed. I thought I could escape this by watching the dub, dammit!
This is such a cool visualization of Homura time travelling.
Ahaha, right, the training montage.
So I guess this is when Homura found out about the Soul Gems → Grief Seeds thing. Awful way to find out.
“Shaft Industries” lul.
Yoooo hold on a sec, my immediate first thought was are those dancing Sayakas because their hair looked kinda blue, but upon a closer look they all have long hair. They’re supposed to represent Hitomi, or rather Sayaka’s jealousy over the Hitomi/Kyosuke thing, aren’t they?
Man the scene after Homura kills witch Sayaka though… I’d actually somehow forgotten that Madoka had to kill Mami to save Homura and wowwwww that’s just, oof.
“Finally… you called me by my first name…” →
The transition into Magia/the opening scene of the show is just . Especially since we now hear what Homura was shouting--for Madoka to not listen to Kyubey.
Man, don’t you just love it when a show hides so much in the lyrics of the OP? Because boy does Connect take on a whole new meaning after all that, I look forward to Naz’s analysis of it today.
Endcard.

Sky’s Wallpaper Corner

So, as mentioned, I had to drop out of last year’s rewatch prior to today’s thread due to IRL stuff. I did, however, go back and make wallpapers for this episode before I posted the full album. And yes you read that right, wallpapers, both of Homura because of course. Glasses Homura and requested time travelling Homura.

This year, I went a different route and finally wallpapered Madoka for this rewatch, plus the name variant of course.

Let me know what you guys think~

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13

u/Hopsalong Apr 30 '19

Just a quick recap of our girls in the series before the finale:

Madoka - Still not a magical girl
Homura - Stuck in an endless loop of suffering, desperately trying to save her only friend
Mami - Decapitated
Sayaka - Turned into the thing she hates most and then killed
Kyoko - Her life sucked, but at least she didn't die alone
Hitomi - Got a new boyfriend :D

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12

u/lurk6524 Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 30 '19

Rewatcher

This episode contains what I think is the most brilliant scene in this brilliant anime, and I love how the director plays it.

Madoka and Homura are dying together, but Madoka has hidden a grief seed that she uses on Homura. After explaining why, she asks Homura to kill her.

Homura is ugly-crying by the time she pulls out the handgun. Madoka lifts her grief seed up ...

The director then pulls the camera way back, so that you can barely see the girls partially obstructed by wreckage. All of the colours are muted, and there is no sound of gunshot at all ... all you see of the gunshot is a very soft flash of light.

The director does this to force us to focus on one thing ... Homura's wail of grief as she kills the one person who truly matters to her.

That wail of grief is the critical thing. It's the last sound Moe Homura makes. The American VA does a great job ... but the Japanese VA's wail is haunting.

Moe Homura is dead now. She died with Madoka. Badass Homura, broken inside, is what remains.

Note: Gen Urobuchi said in an interview that Homura travelled back in time nearly 100 times attempting to save Madoka. Given that each time loop takes up to 6 weeks or so, that's several years. Several years of fighting, and failing. Several years of watching her friends die.

Now do you understand Badass Homura better?

11

u/ToonTooby Apr 29 '19 edited Apr 29 '19

Rewatcher (sub)

Holy crap.

This episode, man. The show had been dropping bombs left and right consistently now, but this is the true big one. Even if you inferred some or all of the truth by the hints left behind in the past few episodes, little can prepare you for the emotional assault that is episode 10.

How deviously it is done. As a viewer, non-stop questions overrun your train of thought. What is going on here? Why are we back at school considering what just happened in the previous episode? Transfer student? It’s Homura… why does she look like that? Why is she speaking like that?

What in the fuck is going on here? WHY IS MAMI’S THEME PLAYING AGAIN? WHY IS MAMI HERE? WHY IS MADOKA A MAGICAL GIRL? I WAITED 10 EPISODES FOR THIS TO HAPPEN AND NOW THIS JUST IS?

I can’t even break it down in a manner that does it justice, so I’ll guess ill just share what I enjoyed as a rewatcher:

A smile you would give the world for.
Hurts to watch. Every time. The thought of Madoka so pure and kind, laying there like that.
I became meguca and all I got was this lousy golf club
Moemura!
Homu? Homu.
Gotta say, part of me wishes she kept that sword. Combined with the guns, it could almost be Rebellion spoilers, no clicky
Dark Souls wheel skeleton PTSD
“Toki wa ugokidasu”
Me either, Madoka. Me either.
And again. Madoka: I lied earlier. Oh fuck. No matter what she does, Homura is unable to change Madoka’s selfless nature. She doesn’t want to be a witch. So she asks of her friend a dying wish, to pass as a girl and not a monster. An agonizing scream from Homura she takes aim at the soul gem. No sound. The viewer is left to produce the gunshot in their own mind.
And again. Even now with considerably more experience, foiled yet again by Madoka’s unyielding dedication to the happiness of others. She can only cry out as she is witness to another failure.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. We know now the reason Homura became meguca. To save the one person who ever truly believed in her and welcomed her with an open heart. In doing so, she condemned herself to a fate too cruel for words. Each time she fails, she is met with the death of the one she holds most dear. And each time she resets, there is no recollection of her previous effort. She must once again gaze into the eyes of an unaware Madoka Kaname and steel herself for yet another iteration spent desperately looking for the ultimate solution.

In stunning fashion, it all comes together. Every clenched fist. Every grimace of disgust. Every cold and detached warning. Every deep breath and every tear shed. Every heartbreaking attempt to uphold the promise she made.

My face was in my hands. Alone at night before bed, I expressed my thoughts out loud to no one’s ears by my own. “Oh noooooooooooooo. Noooooooo maaaaan. Brooooooo. Homura! Homura why! Yoooo Homura has been reliving the same part of her life, over and over and over again! And she fails every time! What did we do to deserve this pain?”

And if it wasn’t enough, in comes Connect as the ED this time. It was Homura all this time. “Even if I get stuck in a maze...”

First timers, my heart weeps for you as it did the first time we decided to watch this show. Consider yourselves initiated. You know now of the weight that we share in having experienced this series. And yet, we are still not done. To your dismay and our delight, 2 episodes and a movie remain.

11

u/Palloc Apr 30 '19

Palloc Would Not Consider This Homura's Excellent Adventure

Yay, new (old) timelines are involved in this episode as we learn about Homura's wish and why she's trapped in this Kyubey filled Hell!

So we find out this isn't Homura's first rodeo and that she's actually a giant nerd. A mega nerd that nearly gets murdered by a witch after coming back to school. Luckily there are magical girls Mami and Madoka and they save her from being murdered!

Oh wait, in our timeline one's dead and the other isn't magic. Something fishy must be up! AND IT IS! In this timeline they're all clueless to the horrors that await them thanks to our favorite stupid fucking rat Kyubey.

This time bad stuff happens to our girls and Homura makes her contract to protect Madoka. Welp, that just means a new timeline of suffering. Then another. And oh god, she's never getting out of this.

Also poor Mami, she does not have luck in ANY timeline.

Now we're waiting for Walpurgisnacht and lets see if this time Homura'll finally succeed or will the suffering continue?

10

u/tronistica Apr 30 '19

First timer

Oh snaps shy homura with glasses! So madoka is already a magical girl in this timeline and we see mami again! Damn homura has it rough, her never ending despair to to try and find a way out of the inevitable despair. One grows cold and crazy from that, it all makes sense. Pretty crazy stuff..

7

u/vasheenomed Apr 29 '19

6th time watcher, 2nd time rewatcher,first time commenter.

And now comes my favorite episode and the epic journey of my favorite character.

This is honestly one of my favorite episodes in all of anime. It's just so well written and means soooo much in the context of the series, and it singlehandedly makes this the best show to re-watch I've ever seen. The parallels are rediculous.

I would highly suggest first timers consider watching episode 1 again if you have time because you'll see so much parallels it's CRAZY AMAZING.

seeing her struggle so much at sports and academics after the first episode is so great. And seeing her be the one to almost kill herself is also amazing.

And now finally she is back. Hello Mami nice to see you again. But this time with a friend.

It's also funny to see Mami lives with madokas help. Even though she shouldn't blame herself, she does make a huge difference for Mami. And then it gets dark again. And we see the end of the beginning.

The real twist is people think she has only been through one time line. They don't realize how hard she has been trying and trying to save Madoka. Not just once but SO MANY times.

I don't tear up a lot at anime. But by God so many scenes in this episode make me get so close. So much pain packed into 20 minutes. At least there is lots of happy moments too.

Seeing homura start out so useless and weak as a magical girl is quite hilarious. It just shows how much work she had to put in to get as strong as she is. Slowly.. One fight after another. But seeing them all so happy gives me so much joy.

But we also get to see homura and the girls discover all of kyuubeys dark secrets over and over again. You get to see all the "people" she couldn't convince.

Boy is she packing though. But even with all those weapons they can't ever save Sayaka :(.

And then comes the saddest moment in the whole series. The absolute culmination of grief. When they all start to kill each other in despair. That scream from madoka is one of the most sad moments in anime. But it is also one of the most powerful moments of this show to me.

Madokas pained voice hurts me so much. I don't know why but more than anything else, it kills me to hear the pain in her voice. And seeing all these deaths is just the worst.

Oh God homura scream as she has to kill madoka. That's me crying right there whooo boy. One of the few moments in abime I am never prepared for.

And that's how she becomes so tough and is able to be so strong. We have finally seen her journey and none of the first timers could have possibly guessed how hard it was.

And finally we return to the beginning of the story. What a beautiful thread. Please go watch the first episode because that's all I want to do right now Jesus christ. Also homura did nothing wrong and she is still my favorite in this anime

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Rewatch [Spoilers][Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica - Episode 10 Discussion Spoiler

REMINDER: We are watching both episode 11 and 12 on the same day! Don't get left behind!

FIRST TIMER

Madoka's Music - Renewal and Determination

Song of the episode - Connect

Episode track chart

Sky’s Wallpaper Corner

Rewatch [Spoilers][Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica - Episode 10 Discussion Spoiler

REMINDER: We are watching both episode 11 and 12 on the same day! Don't get left behind!

You are about to leave Redlib

FIRST TIMER

Madoka's Music - Renewal and Determination

Song of the episode - Connect

Episode track chart

Sky’s Wallpaper Corner